Thursday, February 12, 2009

Gerry Ritz, still not fired

CanWest with an inadvertent typo in a report on a dispute between Conservative MPs in Saskatchewan and provincial agriculture officials. They seem to have removed the typo from some reports but not all:

..Saskatchewan Conservative MP David Anderson shot back Tuesday, saying the province could dip into its own coffers if it wants to do more for the livestock sector, and argued the federal government has already been delivering, with loans to cattle and livestock farmers and the expansion of agricultural markets.

"I don't think there's any need for the province to begin playing the blame game," said Anderson. "We're working with the provinces and with industry to find solutions that are facing the livestock industry."

He suggested the Saskatchewan Party government could provide lasting education property tax relief if it wants to help its producers, or consider going the route of Alberta, which last year introduced a multimillion-dollar strategy for its livestock producers.

"Saskatchewan right now has the capacity to do some of those things and I think producers are expecting them to do that," said Anderson, who is a parliamentary secretary to the Ritz. (emphasis added)

That's a shame...the Ritz and his Saskatchewan crew are not getting along with the provincial cousins these days. Guess that'll happen when your farming policy is MIA.

The New Democrat’s agriculture critic Alex Atamanenko on Tuesday won the backing of Liberal and Bloc Quebecois MPs on the House of Commons agriculture committee to move forward with a plan to conduct a Parliamentary investigation on food safety.

The three opposition parties left the committee meeting unsatisfied with the government’s investigation, and vowed to table a plan on Thursday to form a special parliamentary committee to conduct a probe in full public view.